 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece, and today I'd like to bring some renewed focus onto the topic of the Will of D, specifically as it pertains to Monkey D, Luffy, and Trafalgar D, Water Law. And I want to zero in on these two in particular, because the Will of D often gets discussed in a much broader sense, but it really does kind of set these two characters on an unstoppable path of fate, which we'll see them intrinsically linked until their destinies have come to a conclusion, and almost certainly tragic conclusion, that is, for either or even both of these characters. But before we get knee-deep into tragedy, it's time for some fun with a quick round of Guess That D, a very simple minigame, the rules of which are as follows. I am going to present you with the silhouette of a D-clan member, and it is simply your job to guess who it is. And if you guess incorrectly, then your punishment will be to subscribe to the Grand Line Review, thus granting you regular lumpies content uploaded straight into your YouTube feed. So good. And if you do guess correctly, then you will be immediately initiated into the D-clan and told the secrets of the void sentry. Excellent. So here is our mysterious silhouette, and it's time for you to guess that D. Make your choice now, and the answer will be revealed in three, two, one, and it's Blackbeard, a very sneaky Blackbeard, but a Blackbeard nonetheless. And if you guessed incorrectly, then you know the thing it is in which you need to do, and don't forget to say hi in the comments below if you are indeed a new member of the Grand Fleet. Welcome. Now to get into things that are important to recognise, both Luffy and Lore are the latest generation in what seems to be an awfully long running line of D-wielding individuals. And they have a very special connection as well, because those labelled with the D very rarely come into any form of alliance. In fact, the established interactions of One Piece tend to quite polarise the meetings of 2D figures. And a classical example of that would be Goldie Roger and Monkey D. Garp, the pirate king and the hero of the marines, the two most profound figureheads of their generation within their respective groups, with them being both fierce enemies and rivals. And we can of course see this with Luffy, because he has his own polar opposite in Martial D. Teach, who isn't a factional rival, but more of a philosophical rival, as well as pirate king contender. Or we could look to Luffy's father, Monkey D. Dragon, who also presents himself as an antithesis of not only Luffy, but also his father Garp. And then of course Garp also stands in stark contrast to Luffy in terms of both age and beliefs. And you know, even a friendlier figure like poor Cass D. Ace was something of an antagonist to Luffy as children, then going on later to become rivals. And then while we're thinking about Ace, he despises his father Roger, his factually opposed to Garp, and a direct enemy of Blackbeard. And then when it comes to Blackbeard, he is of course the enemy of everyone in everything, including Ace for obvious reasons. Luffy is a pirate king rival, Garp is an agent of the world government, and also for no adequately explored reason yet, even Dragon and the Revolutionary Army, because Blackbeard attacked their base on Baltigo. And all of that is essentially to say that Dees just generally do not play nicely together. In fact, even lore effectively started out as Luffy's enemy and all rival, with the only potential exception to this we have being of Roger and Rouge, given that they clearly had some sort of D-related intercourse. But then again, we don't even know the specifics of their relationship, and they might have hated each other when they first met. But I go to the troubled sale of this to highlight the incredible rarity that is the Alliance of Luffy and Lore, which is quite understated in the series primarily because Lore himself is a very understated person, I suppose. Plus after Dressrosa, he has been more of a background figure. However, these two together are probably one of the most formidable alliances ever formed. And if the world government were indeed aware that lore was a D, then I think that they would be sweating far, far harder than hearing of an alliance between Kaido and Big Ma. Because more so than anyone else in the world, they are aware of the danger of the D. In fact, according to Rosinante, young world nobles are even told that if they don't behave, then they'll be quote, gobbled up by a D. And as for the adult world nobles, well to them, the people of D are known as the enemies of the gods. Which would imply that as much as Luffy's goal really has nothing to do with the world government, he is still a sworn force against them, less sworn by Luffy himself and more by his inherited will and fate. And the same goes for Lore, he's a man who was a bit more lost in life than Luffy. Most of it was spent on a quest for revenge, which you know just so happened to be against a former member of world nobility, funny little coincidence of destiny there. But having accomplished that, Lore is now faced with a bigger picture to come to terms with, given that his personal mission is over. And in this, Lore will face one of two options, either he continues the trend of D and perhaps betrays Luffy, or he continues with this alliance, and perhaps that becomes symbolic of the D clan reforming in the modern age. I for one am more partial to the second idea, I know there are a lot of people out there who enjoy the Lore betrayal idea because mmm the drama. But I'll just say that if he isn't going to do it on Wano whilst facing off against the strongest pirate in the world, then it's highly unlikely to ever happen. And therefore going into the final saga, I think that Luffy and Lore will become a centerpiece along with the rest of the D's such as Blackbeard, Dragon and Garp, as the greatest war this planet has ever seen breaks out with each of them causing a part of the metaphorical storm. Or perhaps even a literal storm in the case of Dragon. But then the question of ultimate fate pops up. To say that those with the middle initial D are favored in this world would be… it's kind of true, but also kind of a lie. Because in fact most of them suffer tragic early deaths with a smile on their face and for good reason, but tragic nonetheless. And currently the only one to really stand against that trend would be Garp but he is a special boy for special reasons that we'll get into another time. Because the point here is that I don't think that Luffy and Lore are quite as fortunate. There's a fair few death fags surrounding both of them and all signs would indicate that both are well on their way to a very smiley demise in the future. In terms of Luffy, he has the honor I suppose of following in the direct path of Goldie Roger, the very first pirate king who was executed shortly after his ground achievement. Roger having suffered from a fatal and incurable disease whilst Luffy is mimicking that by consistently destroying his own body in combat. Specifically through the use of gears, which was flagged very early on, as a technique that just chips and chips away at Luffy's life with each subsequent use. And then there are also very monumentally event specific instances of lifespan cost, such as the paramount war saga where in order to recover from Magellan's poison, Ivankov just flat out stated that Luffy would lose 10 years of his life. And these things are going to add up and at this point I don't think we have a great chance of seeing an elderly Luffy. With the sole exception of these drawings that Oda did in an SPS where an age 40 Luffy looks startlingly like shanks and an age 60 Luffy looks like a full conversion into garbhood. But unfortunately he will probably have no real reason to make it that far even if he did have the lifespan remaining. When it comes to Roger, he lived until the age of 53 because his journey was much, much slower of a burn than Luffy's. And the very moment it was completed, his life was over. Meanwhile, Luffy is basically speed running one piece and is likely to reach Laugh Tale very, very soon in terms of in-world time, thus potentially signaling the beginning of the end for Mr. Rubberlad. Very important word potentially because as much as Luffy has destroyed his body to the point of no return, there is an option in existence to at the very least, let's say, halt that idea, which takes us to the death flags of Trafalgar lore. And this starts off with the idea that lore is already kind of operating on borrowed time. As a youngling, he incurred amber-led poisoning and really should have died long ago. But fate plonked in Opiopinomene, his lap allowing him to live on. The problem there being that the use of the Opiopinomene puts lore on an almost parallel path to Luffy because overexertion of that fruit's ability also has the effect of life force reduction. And its crowning ultimate super ability, the perpetual youth surgery, would cost lore's life just to perform. Which to be fair is only an issue if he actually does it. And for most people, that just wouldn't be a problem at all. You just wouldn't do the thing that kills you. However, a big problem with one piece is that it's a story and introducing a concept like this only for it to be ignored is not quite how this series would usually operate. I mean, maybe if we were talking about something like Hunter Hunter then sure, introduce and not pay off as many things as you'd like, but this is one piece. And such a massive ability was more than likely flagged in order to be used at some point. Now of course I will say just briefly that this may not be lore's use. Like the concept may have been used to introduce a story point where it may have already been used on certain characters like perhaps the five older stars. But lore still has command over it right now and there are situations in which it may rather tragically need to be used. One fun example would be the idea that say Luffy is caught by Big Mom in combat and she's about to drain all of the years of his life away. So at the last second, lore performs the operation and gives Luffy eternal youth, which theoretically should be a hard counter to Big Mom's life force-related business. And that's just one of many potential examples, but very importantly it's always good to note that this operation does not make the target immortal. Lore's ultimate ability grants a target eternal youth, kind of like Sugar's hobby hobby to me. The target can still die though, which is a bit confusing in the Viz translation because they did flat out call it the immortality operation, which also brings a whole ton of other connotations of unkillability to it. I do think there might be a problem with lore using the operation on Luffy though because that would negate all of the sacrifices that Luffy has made up until this point. All of those years of life that he's lost through Gears and Ivankov and all sorts of crap would kind of be rendered meaningless now that he has eternal youth. Whereas the Luffy we have now currently has a very clean path to leaving this planet after becoming the Pirate King and performing whatever grand destined event comes either before or after that. And Luffy does tend to be a bit of a key focus, but what is there to say that lore wouldn't use this operation on someone else? Like in a moment of desperation he uses the ability on one of Luffy's allies which would go on to be integral to Luffy's success. And of course fulfill a lore's rather tragic destiny in this world. I quite like the idea, but it can be hard to imagine what such a thing would be. I mean for example if someone were to be poisoned and was about to die then that would be a pretty good prompt for lore to use the operation, except that he's a doctor with the Opioppinomy and could probably just remove such poisoning with his more basic skills. It really does take an extreme situation to warrant the Opioppinomy like the Big Mom example, but I do like the idea of using it on someone else more than the thought of using the operation on Luffy because then that allows both Luffy and lore to come full circle with the fate of D, both of whom going on to die would smile on their faces and to be remembered forever or at least for a long while. And as for a situation where either one of them live I actually find that to be a much tougher thought than having both of them die. Lore would probably be the stronger candidate to linger on though, but fate really has not been kind to the decline thus far, so it is quite difficult to look at lore and see anything other than these gigantic ominous death clouds above him. But however things play out this dynamic of Luffy and lore is going to be essential. It is a key interaction that's been somewhat on the back burner since the end of Dressrosa, but here we have two generational figures, each on a mission to complete whatever the grand decree of fate has planned for them. But what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious one piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds. But for now this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.